It is generally known that when a woman exercises without some form of support to her breasts (such as sports bras, crop tops and sports tops), her breast tissues will move around (most commonly in a figure of eight (“8”) motion). This can easily lead to permanent stretching and damage of the breast ligaments, which can become extremely painful. Depending on the impact of the sport/movement in question, it is generally the case that the larger the breast size, the more serious the issue will be.
There are in existence sports tops and bras which seek to solve this problem. One existing approach is “encapsulation” whereby the breast is supported by a three-dimensional support which follows the shape of most of the breast. This is mostly adopted in a molded garment with under wires. Another existing approach is “compression”, whereby the entire breast profile is minimized by compressing the surface area of the breast, thus restricting the bouncing movement.
It is found in practice that garments adopting the “encapsulation” approach usually suffer from the drawback of insufficient air-permeability through the garment (i.e. breathability). As for garments adopting the “compression” approach, such usually compress the breasts of the wearer downward, causing discomfort to the wearer or even disfiguring of the breasts.